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Second typo slows House GOP's progress on deregulation bill

A second typo is slowing down House work on a bill aimed at limiting federal regulations.

Work stalled after Republicans made a typographical error in a measure that had been quickly developed to replace an earlier measure that included an embarrassing typo.

The bill, H.R. 4078, was intended to prevent new federal rules until the unemployment rate falls to 6 percent, but instead referred to the "employment" rate.

To fix that, the House Rules Committee approved a rule that, once passed by the House, would deem the bill to be corrected to say "unemployment." But that rule incorrectly refers to the main rule for the bill as H.Res. 783, when it should have said H.Res. 738.

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Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) asked for unanimous consent to fix that numbering error, in order to proceed to the rule fixing the "unemployment" error. But she was met by Democrats who said the second error, while understandable, shows that Republicans are moving too quickly on legislation.

"I do think this is more than simply a double error," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said. "It's a matter of haste."

Foxx recalled the tribute to the victims of the Colorado shooting, which took place earlier in the morning, and even choked up as she called on Democrats to work with Republicans and accept their request to fix the new typo.

"Time is very precious — don't waste it by playing 'gotcha' games," she said.

Foxx then withdrew her unanimous consent request to fix the rule, which led Democrats to question how the House can proceed to considering the rule at all. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) indicated that despite their criticism, Democrats were prepared to accept the GOP's request to fix the new typo.

At the end of the debate, Foxx proposed her amendment to the rule, and asked for vote on both that amendment and the rule. The House approved the amendment and the rule by voice vote, which fixed both the new problem and the "unemployment" problem in the underlying bill.

With all known typos out of the way, the House proceeded to vote on 15 amendments to the bill, after which it was expected to pass the bill before leaving for the week.